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November 14, 2005

Coming Soon: The "War on Christmas"

Each year, some Christians loudly protest imagined attacks on Christmas. Evidently, they feel that efforts to make sure their public displays are legal and inoffensive to persons of other religions and non-believers constitute such an attack. In essence, if you dare to point out that my behavior is offending you, then you are attacking me. This has to be one of the strangest twists of logic I've encountered.

Wal-Mart appears to be the current target because they train their greeters to use a greeting that respects persons with non-Christian beliefs. It seems that Wal-Mart recognizes that Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, etc. are not interested in hearing "Merry Christmas," and have decided to replace it with "Seasons Greetings" or "Happy Holidays." I don't think I've ever had occasion to say this before, but right on Wal-Mart! It is about time somebody demonstrate some respect for religious minorities in this country.

To the legions of Christians who are upset about this, I'd like to point out that nobody is attacking your holiday. All we are asking is that you use some sensitivity in how you present it in public (if you cannot refrain from public displays). If you let this become of divisive issue, then it seems that it is you who has destroyed your own holiday.